COLOMBIAN EBA PROJECT REPORT SERIES NO. 4 COLOMBIAN EBA PROJECT: SEARCH FOR THE MAGDALENA TINAMOU Published by Fundación ProAves. ISSN 1811-1246 www.proaves.org By: Thomas M Donegan, Blanca C Huertas H, Elkin R Briceño L, John Jairo Arias B, Carlos E González O Search for the Magdalena Tinamou Colombian EBA Project Report Series No. 4 Published by Fundación ProAves. © Fundación ProAves, 2003 Photographs: © Thomas Donegan & Blanca Huertas / Fundación ProAves unless otherwise noted. Copies of this report are available online from Fundación ProAves’ website: www.proaves.org. Electronic versions of this publication may be downloaded, distributed and printed without restriction and this publication may be photocopied without restriction. However, material in this publication must not be copied into or used in other publications without appropriate credit to the authors and Fundación ProAves. Suggested citation: Donegan TM, Huertas BC, Briceño EL, Arias JJ and González CE (2003) Search for the Magdalena Tinamou: Project Report. Colombian EBA Project Report Series No. 4. Published online by Fundación ProAves, Colombia at www.proaves.org. 49 pp. ISSN 1811- 1246. This project took place with the kind support of: The purpose of this project was to uncover evidence concerning one of the world’s most threatened species, the Magdalena Tinamou Crypturellus saltuarius, from a combination of anthropogenic and biological fieldwork. The species had gone unrecorded since 1943. Nothing was known of its ecology and the species was considered perhaps already to be extinct. 2 1. CONTENTS 1. Contents 1 Contents 3 2 Participants 4 3 Colombian EBA Project 4 4 Executive Summary 5 5 Sumario Ejecutivo 6 6 Acknowledgements 7 7 Background 8 8 Justification 9 9 Itinerary 9 Map of Study area 10 10 Study Site Descriptions 11 11 Methods 15 Overview 15 Detailed Methodology 15 1. Examining satellite maps 15 2. Interviews with local people 15 3. Biological fieldwork methods 17 (a) Tinamou surveys 17 (b) General ornithological work 17 (c) Botanical assessment 19 (d) Entomological and mammals assessment 19 12 Results of Crypturellus saltuarius fieldwork 21 1. Satellite data and ground data: status of habitat 21 2. Results and discussion of interviews: south Cesar 21 3. Results and discussion of interviews: Santander 23 4. Limitations on interview data and the need for additional data 23 5. Fieldwork data 23 13 Conservation status of Crypturellus saltuarius 24 Is Crypturellus saltuarius extinct? 24 Threats 26 Habitat 26 Conservation priorities 26 14 General ornithological surveys 27 15 Entomological surveys 33 16 References 35 Appendices 37 Appendix I: Systematic Inventory of Birds 37 Appendix II: Botanical report on the status of the Caoba tree 48 Appendix III: Expedition Accounts 49 Search for the Magdalena Tinamou Colombian EBA Project Report Series No. 4 2. PARTICIPANTS Research team Thomas M Donegan Elkin R Briceño L Christ’s College, Cambridge University, UK Corporación Autónoma Regional para la Defensa de la Meseta de Bucaramanga Blanca C Huertas H (CDMB), Colombia Natural History Museum, London, UK Carlos E González O John Jairo Arias B Universidad del Cauca, Popayán, Colombia Universidad Pedagógica Nacional, Bogotá, Colombia 3. COLOMBIAN EBA PROJECT Colombian EBA Project is the name of an ongoing Anglo- Colombian research and conservation initiative which started in 1997 and has since led to the creation of a new national park in Serranía de los Churumbelos, Cauca; the first ever biological surveys from Serranía de San Lucas, perhaps the greatest ‘gap’ in our knowledge of South American flora and fauna; the discovery of two new bird species for science, and many other exciting discoveries, publications and conservation outputs. Colombian EBA Project is known in Colombia as Proyecto EBA Colombia and is an investigative programme of Fundación Proaves. 4 Search for the Magdalena Tinamou Colombian EBA Project Report Series No. 4 4. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Magdalena Tinamou Crypturellus saltuarius is among the most poorly-known and endangered taxa in the world, assigned “Critical” status by BirdLife International. It was described from a single specimen collected in the western foothills of Colombia’s East Andes in 1943 and has not been seen since. An old record from 1786 also refers to this species. With no records in almost 60 years, biologists and conservationists crucially lacked any information on C. saltuarius’ status, ecology, vocalisations, distribution and threats before this project. Our objective was to search for the Magdalena Tinamou in remaining forest patches, with a view to initiating protective measures. We set out to achieve this by (i) studying satellite maps of the region to pinpoint areas of the study region where habitat is still extant; (ii) conducting interviews with local people; and (iii) undertaking a rapid biological assessment of the region. From satellite data and our own observations, we found that the foothill elevations of the western slope of the Cordillera Oriental of the Andes, in which Crypturellus saltuarius’ type locality, Ayacucho (200 m), is situated, have largely been deforested and turned over to pasture from 100 to 1000 m elevation, with very few remaining patches of even secondary forest. We conducted interviews and distributed over 500 posters in the various towns and settlements in our study region, located in the Departments of Cesar, Norte de Santander and Santander in the Magdalena Medio region of northern Colombia. In our interviews, an overwhelming majority of people did not identify C. saltuarius. However, in southern Cesar and Norte de Santander, 5 people provided us with good descriptions. Information from these interviews provides strong evidence of the species’ continued existence into the 1980s and early 1990s at least. Reports from interviews suggest that the preferred habitat of the Magdalena Tinamou is forested areas located in the foothills of the west slope of Colombia’s Eastern Cordillera. The species perhaps also inhabits foothill forest on the east slope of Colombia’s Western Andes in the Serranía de San Lucas. The Tinamou’s call, a trisyllabic “soy so- la” was described by several hunters, as was the species’ dawn and dusk activity, typical of the genus. During biological surveys at six sites located in the Magdalena Valley lowlands and adjacent East Andes, we failed to locate C. saltuarius. However, this does not necessarily mean that the species is extinct as our biological surveys were restricted to sub-optimal habitats. Land of suitable elevation in the region from which most recent reports of this species originate, above Ayacucho and Pelaya, has largely been deforested, and the few remaining forest patches are currently considered too dangerous to study due to ongoing conflict between guerrilla and paramilitary groups. In addition to the new information about C. saltuarius, a wealth of new distributional and ecological information about 332 bird species was collected from the Magdalena Medio, a region which has not been surveyed since the 1940s. Important new localities were noted for 12 Threatened and Near- Threatened species including the critically endangered Gorgeted Wood-Quail Odontophorus strophium, the endangered Antioquia Bristle-Tyrant Phylloscartes lanyoni and the endangered Black Inca Coeligena prunellei. Two new bird species for Colombia, Barbary Dove Streptopelia risoria and White-tipped Swift Aeronautes montivagus were confirmed photographically. A comprehensive entomological collection was also compiled during our fieldwork, containing over 150 butterfly species. Although we did not rediscover the Magdalena Tinamou, this research project was successful in collating much new information about the ecology of the species and threats to it and in collating much new data relating to the other poorly-known and threatened species from this little-studied region of northern Colombia. 5 Donegan, Huertas, Briceño, Arias & González Fundación ProAves 5. SUMARIO EJECUTIVO El Tinamú del Magdalena Crypturellus saltuarius se encuentra entre las especies de aves mas desconocidas y amenazadas del mundo, por lo que está considerada en estado “crítico” por BirdLife International. Esta especie fue descrita de un único espécimen colectado en el piedemonte occidental de la Cordillera Oriental de los Andes colombianos en el año de 1943, la cual desde entonces no ha sido vista. Existe además, un registro más antiguo sobre esta especie del año de 1786. Anterior a la realización de este proyecto, y por casi 60 años, biólogos y conservacionistas carecían de información básica sobre el estatus de C. saltuarius, su ecología, vocalizaciones, distribución y amenazas. Nuestro objetivo principal fue buscar al Tinamú del Magdalena en pequeños parches de bosque, con el propósito de iniciar medidas de protección para la especie. De acuerdo con este objetivo, nuestra metodología consistió en (i) estudiar mapas satelitales para escoger algunas áreas de la región de estudio según los hábitats existentes; (ii) hacer entrevistas con la población local; y (iii) desarrollar una investigación biológica rápida de la región. Datos satelitales y observaciones propias, muestran que los piedemontes donde se encuentra la localidad del espécimen tipo de Crypturellus saltuarius cerca de Ayacucho (200 m), han sido considerablemente deforestados y convertidos a pastizales desde los 100 hasta los 1000 m de elevación, con muy pocos parches de bosques, incluso de bosques secundarios. Se realizaron entrevistas y se distribuyeron más